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It’s Hard To Be Homeless

It is hard to be homeless. For anyone who thinks that homeless people don’t work, I encourage them to attempt 24 hours of living on the streets. It is difficult to get a good night’s sleep while lying on the ground. It is a challenge to find a place to rest without being accosted or arrested. It is no easy task to lug all of your personal belongings from place to place while trying to meet the most basic of needs, especially in the heat of a Florida summer. It is sometimes heart-wrenching to have to beg for change in order to feed yourself and those you care for. And yet, there are those who relish the lifestyle, have learned how to coast through it while feeding their primitive desires, and have little desire to incorporate themselves back into the framework most of us consider “normal” society. Because these types are generally on the frontline with outstretched hands and rehearsed rationalizations for why they prefer not to work for a living, many have become apathetic to the plight of even those who would like to rise from their state of destitution.

Apathy, nestled between the burden of Guilt and the realization found in Grief, is a key state of consciousness for homelessness. Those that are afflicted by the lifestyle become apathetic to pulling themselves out of the quagmire and engaging civilization again, and civilization becomes apathetic toward helping those who will not help themselves. And so, we are left with little more than a band aid for a wound that is constantly being picked at. The biggest criticism of the homeless population is the refusal to release their addictions in order to create a more productive, collaborative, aesthetic, and abundant life for themselves. However, that seems to be one of the primary reasons that civilization as a whole finds such discomfort and disease while facing the possibility of a progressive future as well.

One of the main differences between the homeless population and the rest of civilization is that those who are in a more coherent social structure need not give in to the Apathy which claims those who face life alone. Although we, as a wealthy society, would be wise, compassionate, and faithful to provide the basic needs of food, water, shelter, and clothing to all of our citizens, to truly help the homeless, we can only guide them toward the prosperous life that we know awaits us all. However, though we may lead these horses to the waters of rebirth that flow from the mythical Fountain of Youth, where the faith of a child is restored, we will not get them to drink unless we drink from it ourselves.